'A Current Affair' out, Geraldo Rivera in

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - The recycled news magazine "A Current Affair," which ran for a decade its first time around, has been canceled less than eight months after returning to the air.

The Twentieth Television series, which launched in March with host Tim Green, will be replaced by "Geraldo at Large," a half-hour news show with Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera. It's also from Twentieth, a Fox TV unit.

"A Current Affair" will air through October. Rivera's show will take over its time slots on Fox owned-and-operated stations in November.

"We are very proud of the effort put forth into 'A Current Affair,' which displayed some exceptional work but has not resonated with audiences in the larger markets as well as we would have liked," Bob Cook, Twentieth's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement Wednesday.

The syndicated series first aired from 1986 to 1996 with Maury Povich and Maureen O'Boyle serving as anchors. The new show debuted last March with Green, a former NFL player, author and Fox Sports commentator.

"A Current Affair" reported on many entertainment, crime and gossip stories during its 10 years on the air. Before the new version launched, Green said it would "look more like it did at its inception," meaning less scandal.

"I heard people describe it as an everyman's '60 Minutes,'" Green told The Associated Press in January.

The New York-based "Geraldo at Large" will air live each weekday covering news stories with correspondents and field reporters, according to Twentieth Television.

The series will be a "strong complement to our local stations' newscasts," Jack Abernethy, chief executive officer of Fox Television Stations Inc., said in a statement.

Rivera, who joined Fox News Channel in 2001 and is a correspondent and host of the Saturday evening show "At Large," will remain with the channel, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. He signed a new four-year contract in June.

He caused some controversy as a war correspondent. The Pentagon asked that he be taken out of Iraq following a report during the war where he outlined planned troop movements in the sand. Rivera apologized and said it was inadvertent.

Before joining Fox News, Rivera hosted the syndicated talk show "The Geraldo Rivera Show" and CNBC's "Rivera Live" and worked at ABC. He has won Peabody and Emmy awards.

The Fox Television Station group includes 35 stations in 26 markets that cover nearly half of U.S. television homes.